by Andrew Loh
Pay us or your women will become maids!
Andrew Loh
After dishing out the goodies to Singaporeans, ministers are rewarding themselves with the biggest goody of all.
“Mr Teo yesterday revealed that because of the ‘exceptionally high’ growth in gross domestic product (GDP) last year, senior officials, including ministers, will receive the maximum GDP-linked bonus, which ‘accounts for a maximum of about ¼ of the annual salary of senior officers, or eight months’.”
– Straits Times, 3 March 2011, reporting the announcement by Minister in charge of the Civil Service and Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Teo Chee Hean, of a bigger pay packet for “top public servants” this year.
Whenever salaries of ministers are “revised” upwards, criticisms of this flow thick and fast. This happened in 2007 as well, when salaries for ministers were raised by some 60 per cent. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew lambasted Singaporeans for criticizing the increase then:
“I say you have no sense of proportion; you don’t know what life is about. The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative, and you’ll never put Singapore together again.” (New York Times)
“Lee senior told the Straits Times on Thursday… that it is “absurd” for Singaporeans to quarrel about ministerial pay and warned that Singapore would suffer if the government could not pay competitive salaries.
“Your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people’s countries,” he said. (CNN)
Well, that’s MM Lee – who lives in the “real world”. Or so he claims. (Reuters)
Whatever the PAP Government’s reasons for rewarding itself a eight-month bonus this time, it is an excessive amount, by any measure. How the Government arrived at this figure of eight months has never been explained. It seems almost an arbitrary number plucked out of thin air.
The justification Mr Teo gives for this latest revision is simply because the GDP is expected to grow 14.5 per cent this year – which, according to the formula for salaries, merits a bonus of eight months since GDP growth exceeds the threshold 10 per cent.
How much have salaries for ministers increased since 1994, when the formula for pegging ministers’ pay to the private sector was first mooted? In 1994, the Prime Minister’s salary was S$1.15 million. Currently, his salary is S$3.76 million – an increase of about S$2.6 million in 16 years.
It is unclear if the PM gets rewarded with a GDP Bonus but his ministers do.
8 months bonuses – justified?
I think Singaporeans will recall the many failings of some ministers these past few years – including the Prime Minister himself.
Lets look at some of these individual ministers and their failings and consider if these ministers deserve an eight-month bonus.
DPM Wong Kan Seng
His failures are epic. The almost comical simplicity of Mas Selamat’s escape from Singapore’s Internal Security Department’s grasp is well remembered by one and all. Yet, instead of taking full responsibility and resign, DPM Wong instead pointed the finger – audaciously, I might add – at the lower rungs in his ministry. Yet, this is not his only failure with regards to Mas Selamat. His ministry failed to arrest Mas Selamat not once but twice. And both times after the man has escaped, it was our neighbouring countries which re-captured the suspect and handed him over to Singapore.
Another failure of DPM Wong is in raising Singapore’s birth rate. DPM Wong oversees the National Population and Talent Division, charged with arresting the declining procreation rate. It was reported recently that our Total Fertility Rate has dropped to a record low of 1.16, one of the lowest in the world.
Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister MCYS
Another minister with epic failures to his name. From the quadrupling of the budget for the Youth Olympic Games, which went from its original S$104 million to S$387 million, to the number of homeless people camped out in parks all over Singapore, Dr Balakrishnan seemed oblivious to these. Here is a minister who would argue – quite ridiculously – with his fellow PAP MP in Parliament over an extra S$1 a day for those on Public Assistance – the old, poor, sick – but who thinks nothing of splashing almost S$400 million on a sports event. Indeed, he “admitted three times” that he got the YOG budget wrong.
As for the homeless, instead of similarly admitting that he “got it wrong” and that his finger wasn’t on the pulse, he went to Parliament and ridiculed a homeless couple and “irresponsible websites” which brought the matter to his attention!
Raymond Lim, Minister of Transport
If any minister was sleeping on his job, Raymond Lim is he. The crowded MRT trains seem to have caught the minister by surprise. Apparently, he woke up to the problem late, at which time commuters were already suffering the results of his slumber. Even today, the trains are packed, and nothing effective seems to have been done to improve the situation. Audaciously, SMRT’s Chief Executive Saw Phaik Hwa laid the blame squarely on commuters – “People can board the trains. It is whether they want to,” she said last year. Mr Lim kept his silence instead of admonishing the good CEO.
What about Mr Lim’s solution to traffic jams on the roads? Install more Electronic Road Pricing gantries, and increase the fees. That seems to be his only solution – which in any case, does not seem to alleviate the problem, especially during peak hours.
Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Works Minister
When many areas in Singapore were flooded in November 2009, Mr Yaacob famously said this “occurs once every 50 years”. As it turned out, that wasn’t true. The following months in 2010 saw massive floodings all over Singapore, the most noteworthy was the one at Orchard Road. Mr Yaacob and his lieutenants then blamed it on “choked drains”, and of course, ultimately laid the responsibility on Singaporeans.
Mah Bow Tan, National Development Minister
There is no need to elaborate too much on Mr Mah’s “accomplishments” these last few years. I think the results speak for themselves. He allowed housing prices to escalate before making a show of introducing “cooling measures” to try and rein in prices – all of which have failed, even until today.
Certainly, this is one minister who does not, by any stretch of the imagination, deserve an eight-month bonus.
Khaw Boon Wan, Health Minister
Mr Khaw proved to everyone that he truly lived in the Ivory Tower when he declared, rather gleefully, how he had to pay only S$8 out of his pocket for his bypass surgery in 2010. He was trying to show that healthcare in Singapore is cheap and affordable. The truth is that more and more Singaporeans, especially the elderly ones, are going overseas for treatment and to fill prescriptions because they can’t afford to do so in Singapore.
And I dare say that, contrary to what the minister tried to portray, no one in Singapore pays S$8 for a major surgery. Not any average Singaporean anyway.
Lee Kuan Yew
What can one say about this Old Mascot? From dissing leaders of our neighbouring countries, to casting doubts on Singaporean Muslims’ religious practice, the man is, surely, past his prime. His Government Investment Corporation of Singapore (GIC) lost more than S$50 billion in investments. No one knows what goes on in that secret agency. As someone who claims to have handed the reins of power over to the younger leaders, MM Lee seem to love hogging the limelight and is in the news more than any other minister, releasing so many books which claim to tell the “Singapore story”, and provide “hard truths to keep Singapore going”. Seems his preoccupation is to write books and preach from his bully pulpit. As he himself has said several times, he is no longer in charge, he is “not so quick on the uptake”, and he doesn’t even spend as much time in the office as he did previously.
These are some examples of ministers who, in spite of major failings, are going to receive eight months worth of GDP bonuses running into the millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.
There is a moral issue in this obscene – lets call a spade a spade – eight-months bonus for ministers. Can you or should you enrich yourself in such a blatantly despicable manner when so many Singaporeans are still struggling to cope, when job security is no longer assured, when Singaporeans are told to brace themselves for record inflation this year, and when retirement is no longer something Singaporeans can look forward to with gladness? And when Singapore has the second highest income-inequality gap in the world?
Also, when the performance of the current government leaves much to be desired, as can be seen in its many failures of the last few years, is GDP growth the only yardstick which matters? After the elections, the government could very well import another million foreign workers. GDP growth would double to 30 per cent. And ministers could reward themselves with another eight months worth of bonuses.
Simply using GDP growth as a yardstick is quite stupid, really. It makes no sense whatsoever.
In the 2004 Parliamentary exchange with NCMP Steve Chia, PM Lee Hsien Loong said:
“The Member’s implicit question is: are the Ministers enriching themselves again? And the answer is, we are going on market terms and, if anything, we are paying below what the market is.”
Well, if ministers were assessed on their performance in “the market” (ie, the private sector), it is not improbable that at least some of them would have been fired long ago, let alone be given such obscenegenerous bonuses.
One can only hope that the Prime Minister remembers and heeds his own words in 2006:
“We must not allow ourselves to be divided between haves and have-nots, or winners and loser. If we let a politics of envy drive a wedge between us, our society will be destroyed, and all will suffer. That must never happen.”
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in his Budget 2011 speech declared that the government will raise workers’ salaries by 30 per cent in the next 10 years.
Ministers, on the other hand, will now receive a 30 per cent increase in total remuneration with just a stroke of the pen. In fact, with just a few words in Parliament and the dirty deed is done.
Does it make sense?
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scenario 1:
make singapore GDP contract by 14%
get no bonus for 1 year
then make GDP expand by 14% back to square one, and make sure newspapers cheer about it
get 8 months bonus
scenario 2:
make GDP expand by 3% for 5 years
get 1 month bonus each year for 5 years, total 5 months
scenario 3:
make GDP stagnate to 0% for 4 years, then suddenly 14% rise
get newspapers to boast about the success of the government
get total 8 months bonus
there is something really wrong about our system.
but as a Singapore Citizen, i am very confident i can do NOTHING about it with the system in this current broken down state.
Public Servants are always servant to the public. Now we have our servant paying themselves more than us and even declared how much they should be paid.
Blaming the lower rung of Civil Servant for leaving the civil service to jusitfy the higer pay of top public servant. Cruel and heart wrenching indeed.
Singapaore has “Qaddafi of Libya” and “Mubarak of Eqypt” running this island. No wonder the people are sufferings and getting poorer while the ruling party are never enough in paying themselves obscene money.
@thoughtless, I do not understand why you claim you can do nothing about the system. Unless you are cilvil servant benefiting from the huge bonus. We can do something at the polls. Change to this ridiculous system has to start somewhere, that is to start at the polls with more support to get opposition MP into parliament to start policy changes. 2 opposition MP right now is not sufficient to block unfair policy and decisions that destroy the people while enriching the elite.
DPM Wong Kan Seng
Shameless
Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister MCYS
Disgraceful
Raymond Lim, Minister of Transport
Blur sotong
Mah Bow Tan, National Development Minister
Liar
Khaw Boon Wan, Health Minister
Smiling Buddha yet Calculative aka Heartless”
Lee Kuan Yew
Senile
Actually, most of the descriptions apply to each and every minister named
thoughless system,
“but as a Singapore Citizen, i am very confident i can do NOTHING about it with the system in this current broken down state”
Yes you can if you want to and very soon too. AT THE BALLOT BOX.
This is not about politics of envy, this is about politics of greed.
Our bunch of leaders are no better than
mercenaries. When they come asking how can they be of service to you during the election campaign, just ask them how much $$ are they will to sacrefice.
Why didn’t you ppl arrow George Yeo? Is it bc you r afraid of ruffling the feathers of a certain group of people who go collectively with a moniker that begins with B and ends with R?
Cherry pick and target those who cannot hit you, it seems.
What have we become? We are no different from the money guzzling politicians in the US, only thing we do it blatantly. I still say if they share it, and I mean be generous with us, then the impact is not so painful. But they deny welfare, squeeze the CPF, punish the low wage workers by importing FTs, and then go and have a good time at our expense. We should never take this lying down.
Singapore got a lot of $$$
But all these $$$ is not for everyone
The BIG $$$ is ONLY for the BIG MEN
Small people got a few pennies and you should be happy with it since it’s ‘more than enough’ for you poor things !
The way our govt behaves remind us of those corrupt investment bankers at Wall Street who caused the global financial crisis. They only have their own self interest and will reward themselves handsomely.
Our ministers do not deserve such high salary nor bonus. They have not come out with an outstanding policies and fumble most of the time. Besides, they are not of high caliber quality in the 1st place.
So they are liars, blur sotongs, no sense
of maths in calculating costs, can’t compete with our Asian neighbours in catching and guarding terrorists, can’t compete with typhoon prone Hongkong in flood control, inabilities to invest our Sovereign funds and yet still hold on to the public purse, being senile and regress mentally by saying other peoples’ country’s pot is black while his own pot is just as black. Mama Mia, and yet reward themselves 8 months extra bonus pay. The easiest job in the world!
And our elderly poor, living in one room rental flats, are trying to survive on around $400 welfare monthly, in very expensive third world Singapore.
What a superb article! I am disseminating this to as people as I know.
Vote the useless PAP jokers out!
No mention of Lui Tuck Yew, the Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts? Under his watch, we have seen more censorship of the arts, denial of funding for political reasons and a general languishing of local media.
What about Shanmugam the Law Minister, whose job scope seems to be to defend PAP’s poor human rights track record and promote its repressive laws? Claiming that Singapore is “not a country”?
Their days in parliarment are numbered, they are just trying to grab as much when they can.
And very craftily push out a Minister, our Uncle Teo, who up to this time has not committed a single mistake in his work, to defend his incompetent colleagues about the ugly, exorbitant bonuses to be paid out.
like investment advisors, if they make you 14% more, they get a big cut.
but if this year you lose 14% you don’t really pay them much cut.
so first, you lost 14% when the financial crisis happened, then now you gained back 14% and you’re back to square one.
net amount you pay this advisor = 8 months bonus.
but in actual fact, you are back to square one, you didn’t gain anything.
most readers and commenters in TOC don’t deserve these guys.
But out there the goondu singaporeans who voted them in, sure deserve what they get. 66.6% have fun.
sad state and if it happens again. i will hang myself on a taugay tree.
most readers and commenters in TOC don’t deserve these guys.
But out there the goondu singaporeans who voted them in, sure deserve what they get. 66.6% have fun.
sad state and if it happens again. i will hang myself on a taugay tree.lol
What does paying high salaries to public servants really insinuate? I hope Singaporeans would be able to provide the answer to the above question.
“I say you have no sense of proportion; you don’t know what life is about. The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative, and you’ll never put Singapore together again.” (New York Times) MM Lee must be right; but is Singapore Humpty Dumpty?
“Lee senior told the Straits Times on Thursday… that it is “absurd” for Singaporeans to quarrel about ministerial pay and warned that Singapore would suffer if the government could not pay competitive salaries.
MM Lee must be right again; but which other developed country pays that kind of money to its ministers? And Singapore is usually compared with Hong Kong.
“Your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people’s countries,” he said. (CNN) I, however, have to disagree with the above statement. Being such a small but rich country, our security will always be at risk; and our women may one day have to serve national service.
A lost for words to decribe this situation.
Cheat, liars, opportunists, scam, day-light robbery, con-men and con-women, blood-suckers,….
Pity those who have been lied to and think the PAP is doing a great job.
SUPER ARTICLE!!!
THEY are no better than those bankers that cause the crsis…
They are super talented, so their 30% increase just need a stroke of the pen.
We are stupid so need 10 years.
YOu forgot the Minister for Education – remember the scholar and the child pornography charges ? and others ?
Yes, I agreed mostly to what the article mentioned.
But, i also agreed that the ministers were to paid handsomely, although not to this extend, and definitely not to every ministers. Look, if LKY said he should get that kind of salary, i will agree wrt what he had achieved for singapore.
However, i would not agree that the younger ministers get paid that high, especially those who failed in their area. don’t mention about getting paid highly, they should not be elected this coming election.
There is 1 thing that i want to add for the failure of MICA. Remember the 2010 world cup? Our telco were only given the rights to telecast in the last minute. and at what price? Yes, the ministry did help, but at our cost. and singapore paid the most to FIFA for the rights to air the event. i still remembered the world cup were shown on channel 5 for most of the matches, like 20+ years ago, where we only pay radio and TV license every year?
Does anyone really believe that Lim Swee Say should be paid more than Barack Obama?
That is how much an ordinary minister in Singapore is paid.
This comparison alone shows you how OBSCENE this 8-months bonus is.
PAP, I voted you in 2006.
The hell I will this time!
this is one class article with a classic cartoon which tells on a ‘MULTI-MILLION’ job!
if one read the BALANCE SHEET of any REALLY GOOD MNC,one immediately realises that its TOP MANAGEMENT AND BOD always encourage some GOOD LEVEL OF RETAINED EARNINGS for future growth.
many FAILED WALLSTREET GIANTS have top level executives from CEO down the line PAYING THEMSELEVS THROUGH THE NOSE in recent times and this has contributed in no small measure to the EXTREME GREED that ended up in a massive LGOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS that rocked even GIANT BANKS AND MANY CENTRAL BANKS/SOVEREIGNS.
by paying thmselves in this MANNER AND LATITUDE,the govt leaders are only EXHIBITING not only greed BUT MAYBE SENDING TO US,poor singaporeans,the UNCEERTAINTIES that lie ahead as the huge payouts smells like those top wallstreet executives RUSHING TO CREAM ALL THEY COULD BEFORE THAT BIG FALL?
I DO HOPE THIS IS NOT THE CASE AS I ONLY WISH THE VERY BEST FOR MY COUNTRY WHICH I STILL LOVE.
What PAP has done is to turn the country into this money grabbling machine to make as much money as possible for its leaders ?
Notice how progress packages are given only during each election year. So it was not meant to be shared if there was no election ?
Would happily vote for LKY if he can promised to donate his accumulated millions to charity ? What about the wife’s monies ? Donated already ?
Great article, this is why I prefer TOC over TR, dear TOC editors, don’t ever go down the slippery slope of thrash-filled articles that TR is putting up, don’t ever degrade yourself by associating with them. And the commentators in TOC are much more mature than TR, only 1 blaming foreigners for the ill of the country and it is not even the main point of his argument, haha. Well, well, well, maybe TOC readers are really wiser, the blame my friends, is not the foreigners but the suits in the ivory tower who treat all like serfs. I for one welcome our WP overlords.
I have only this to say..immoral greedy b_stards..you know who you are. Walk down the street and look at the 70 year old sweeper or toilet cleaner who is unable to retire after working for so long and is now earning $600 per month in this first world country. Take a walk around the old housing estates and see how people are struggling. Look at the freaking decreasing earning of the lower income group.
So it is “absurd” for Singaporeans to quarrel about ministerial pay and Singapore would suffer if the government could not pay competitive salaries.
For the your freaking information almost one quarter of the population is suffering now. So are you going to tell us, that we need to pay you even more
so that these poor people will not suffer. You are so despicable I have no word to describe you. MF is a kind word to describe you and you pretend to be so great..BMF. If I can get my way..not a single person I know will vote for you.
May b we need a Military Coup like what happen in Thailand.
Since NSMen are not respected. We shall show them what we r made of.
that is why GCT can not be consultative
after that
consult among themselves can
we are peanut butter cookie to be eaten
NO ONE citizen in SG want riot !!!!!!!!!
talk nicely remember always talk nicely
know your manners please we are adults
how to hear or listen if you shout
WORSE if you riot
want to die with Army tank run over U
>> Singapore’s fat-cat ministers getting fatter each year:
[Source: Straits Times reports]
Data on BASIC Annual Pay (ie excluding undisclosed bonuses/other perks)
President: $2.6m(2006) $3.2m(2007) $3.9m(2008)
PM/MM/SM: $2.5m(2006) $3m(2007) $3.8m(2008)
DPM: $2m (2006) $2.5m(2007) $3m (2008)
Minister: $1.2m(2006) $1.6m(2007) $1.9m(2008)
[ PM Basic Pay = $3.8m per year = $320,000 per month = $10,000 per day ]
[ Minister Basic Pay = $1.9m per year = $160,000 per month = $5,000 per day ]
>> A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE:
(a) The above-stated mind-boggling SINGLE-DIGIT MILLIONS represent BASIC Annual Pay i.e excluding mid-year bonus, year-end bonus, Performance Bonus, GDP Bonus, CPF/PENSION, other perks, etc.
TOTAL Annual Pay = (disclosed) BASIC Annual Pay + (undisclosed) bonuses/other perks.
(b) For Comparison — in 2009, the TOTAL Annual Pay packages (as DISCLOSED in published Annual Reports) of CEOs of various public-listed Temasek-Linked Companies* range from $3m to $11.6m.
[ *DBS, SingTel, SGX, Keppel Corp, SembCorp, CapitaLand.
In 2007, CapitaLand CEO Liew Mun Leong (a former pen-pushing Civil Servant!) received a whopping Total Annual Pay of $20.5m --- which led to a public outcry.]
(c) Thus, the (undisclosed) TOTAL Annual Pay of our fat-cat Million-dollar Ministers will likely be in the TWO-DIGIT MILLIONS (likely upwards of $15m?).
WHY THE SECRECY ???
AS IF S’pore Taxpayer-Voters who are the very people paying for such huge sums of money HAVE NO RIGHT TO KNOW ???
[ "There is no policy too sensitive to question, and no subject so taboo that you cannot even mention it." --- DPM Lee Hsien Loong (ST 17 Jan 2000) ]
[ "DPM Lee promises a more open Singapore"; "I don't make promises I can't keep: DPM Lee" (ST 7 Jan 2004) ]
[ "We are OPEN and TRANSPARENT...WE CANNOT HIDE what goes on in Singapore"
--- MHA Minister Wong Kan Seng (ST 18 May 03) ]
[ "This is a very honest government. We don't try to mislead the people."
--- SM Goh Chok Tong (ST 29 Nov 06) ]
All I have to say – screw them for doing such heartless acts on Singaporeans!!
Even taking a junior minister/perm sec’s salary conservatively at $2 mill, with an eight month bonus and not including any other bonuses or perqs, the total works out to $3.33 mill.
The average income from work per household member in employed households was $2500 pm or $30,000 pa in 2010.
So without taking any other bonuses or hidden income suggested by David See, the junior minister/perm sec’s salary works out to 110 times the average salary.
And this does not include investment income from the millions earned in previous years.
By the way, a corollary: no wonder Singapore is so keen to bring down direct taxation and raise indirect taxation (GST) because the savings for top earners is enormous. Increased GST means you and I pay more for government expenses. Meantime, the top earners save more to play golf and buy condos.
At the rate of going on rewarding themselves, no wonder our entire cpf savings would be gone. This is daylight robbery of the people’s money.
Let’s not forget –
(1) long waits for taxis, arising from poorly formulated policies and unwillingless to open up the transport sector to private sector competition.
(2) long wait when referred to restructured hospitals. how many lives were lost, time wasted just because they do not have the foresight to equip the country with medical, transport and housing infrastructure when they decided to flood the country with FTs?
I think Singaporeans are ok in recognising and rewarding our ministers appropriately. However pegging bonuses to GDP growth might not be a right structure or variable since government is not supposed to be running a corporation but a country.
A better variable would possibly be KPIs in alleviating the lower income or disadvantaged group. This directs government’s attention in serving from bottom up.
Currently, the bonus structure peg to GDP growth directs the government to serve mainly the higher income group. That is why the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.
Electoral Bribes
http://theowlcritic.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-let-them-buy-these-elections.html
Hey Andrew,
What about the YOG Food poisoning?
If the average Singaporean still does not wake up in the 2011 election, commentators here may wish to consider voting with their feet.
Here is an inspiring entry by a Singapore serf. It is old but its contents still hold true.
http://singaporeserf.blogspot.com/2004/09/emigration-essay.html
Our $,$$$,$$$ Ministers peg their salaries and bonuses to top earners in the private sector. Presumably, that includes the likes of Dr Susan Lim.
I have very concerned that people blame DPM WKS for mas selamat’s escape. its ridiculous. he was not the office in charge. he is a minister.
blackbean,
And as minister, he is ultimately responsible. Also, Mas Selamat did not escape once but TWICE.
And Singapore failed to re-arrest him not once but TWICE. (It was first Indonesia, then Malaysia that arrested MSK after he escaped.)
So WKS not responsible?
A good government will ensure a good system of checks and balances are in place. This self-serving, self-congratulating, self-rewarding PAP builds corruption into their system.
The entire MIW are wrought with conflict of interests in so many areas. They have direct vested interest in driving up property prices, keeping our wages down, importing in foreigners to artificially inflate GDP, etc, etc, etc…
What’s good for the PAP ministers are 180 degrees opposite of what’s good for Singapore and Singaporeans. How can they in any good conscience continue to stay at the helm?
Let’s put it this way, Mah Bow Tan just said, “property prices and economic growth go hand in hand and the prices cannot be expected to stagnate while the economy is powering ahead”
This so perfectly describes the entire MBT and PAP mindset. Notice how huge chunks of that equation is missing?
Economy powers ahead — our pay increases, our spending ability and confidence grows, we become able and willing to spend more on housing — property prices go up.
See how all the middle bits that relate to bettering our lives are conveniently overlooked/omitted?
They just skip out the bits that don’t interest them and artificially inflate prices by importing in people with no restraint and opening our property market to any and every foreign buyer/investor. All excuses that Singapore is small and land scarce stowed till they need to use it again to implement or increase yet another tax/charge/surcharge/levy.
Just like how they reward themselves for GDP figures instead of looking at what that increased GDP figures can do for the Citizens and rewarding themselves for these improvements.
That’s why their “economic planning” just stops short at GDP instead of going further to how that GDP can be used for Singaporeans.
Great article, Andrew, I could not have said it better. Shocking and obscene as the 8 months’ GDP bonus is, the reality is that it is just one of the many bonuses they give themselves every year. Their total annual bonuses is close to 20 months of their multi-million $ pay (8 months GDP bonus + 8 months performance bonus + 1 to 2 months’public sector leadership bonus + 13th month bonus + half or three-quarter mid-year bonus). We need to disseminate this to all those Singaporeans who still believe that the PAP is the incorruptible and honourable party who work for the good of the people. If we don’t vote them out soon, they will plunder our country until not even bones are left.
I received one month bonus recently, pro-rated to 0.75 because I started this new job in March last year. I took care of my family, wife and 2 school-going kids, nurturing them to add value to Singapore in future. I pay various taxes to contribute to Singapre. I spent time and money on my elderly mother to minimise her burden to Singapore. I am personally happy with my contributions to Singapore. But not happy with the thought that our government thinks so highly of themselves that they must pay themselves 100 times more than me.
if everyone of us are so unhappy with the
present govt. now is the time.
no point complaining and suffer for another 5 years.
just do something once and for all.
got it?
I was really daft to understand that the Minister’s annual salary of twelve months is only $2m. It is now clear from DPM Teo’s revelation that the minister’s GDP bonus of eight months represents one-quarter of his annual pay. This means that his full annual salary consists of 8X4=32 months, or more than two and a half times his annual salary of $2m. In other words each Minister is now getting 32 months’ salary for 12 months’ work! I am truly confused.
And don’t forget the Lehman Minibond saga where many people lost their life savings. And contrast the handling of the saga in HK and Singapore. In Hong Kong, politicians fight for the rights of the small people. What about Singapore?
The above on individual minister really sum up what my thought of them are over the past 5 years!
Those screw up issue are brush off or under carpet and they are shameless to pay themselves million for the “external factor” which is not the effort at all!
Look at Hong Kong who had did better than those white scum, have the office holder paid themselves that kind of salary?
Enough is enough, let show them the door once and for all. If they are really capable, pls go private sector and try their luck! There are better Singaporean to take care of business.